Karnataka High Court permits accused in murder case to play video footage of media interviews of witnesses in support of his defence during trial
The High Court of Karnataka has permitted an accused in a murder case to play video footage of television channels, which had telecast statements of certain witnesses in the case on the day when the offence was committed, to prove wrong the claim of the police that the victim was brought dead to the hospital.
Acceptance or otherwise, proving or otherwise is a matter of evidence but “withholding of evidence in defence would undoubtedly defeat the voyage towards discovery of truth in a criminal trial,” the High Court observed.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Aravinda, who had questioned an order passed by a trial court in Chickballapur district rejecting his plea for playing the video footage of interviews given by certain witnesses to the media. The trial court had rejected the plea for playing the footage on the ground that statements given by the witnesses to the media cannot be considered as their previous statements as per the law.
The petitioner-accused had contended that playing the video footage, which were widely circulated on WhatsApp, would demolish the claims made by the police in their chargesheet that the victim was brought dead as several witnesses had made contrary statements to the media in the presence of police officers.
Under Evidence Act
“There would be certain evidence that would become necessary for the defence to prove its innocence and this is one such case,” the High Court said while holding that the trial court was wrong in refusing permission for the production video footage, which is certified under the Evidence Act to be considered as an evidence, and playing it in the court to confront the witnesses with contents of the footage.
“If it leads to the discovery of truth and the discovery of truth leads to the innocence of the accused, it should be permitted to come on record,” the court said while observing that “every criminal trial is a journey or a voyage towards the discovery of truth, as conviction alone is not the object of criminal trial.”
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